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A Monster in Ikeda
Satsukiyama Park, Ikeda. Midnight To most residents of Ikeda, the park was a source of pride and joy, a wonderful haven of nature and a prime addition to the city as a whole. Yet tonight, tonight there was something off about the otherwise idyllic landscape. Perhaps it was the eerie sound of chanting voices, or the robed individuals to whom the aforementioned voices belonged. All of them wore facial veils obscuring their features, all save one, a tall lanky male with wispy black hair who let his hand trail sigils into the empty air while he spoke amidst the chanting of his companions. "My right hand is the stone that bridges worlds. My left hand is the blade that binds reality. The black-haired shepherd is hung from a chair. Stratus clouds come, and I strike down the ibis." Each syllable was like a dagger that sunk deep into the fabric of space and dimensions, and as the utterances continued, a vertical black line with jagged edges appeared in the air, splitting apart to reveal a into some preternatural blackness. Finally! The moment was upon them, soon a Gillian would emerge from the Garganta, drawn to them by the spell that had been devised for this very occasion. Then they'd bind and incapacitate it, as a scientist of the noble art he could hardly contain his excitement. Through skillful use of Kakushitsujiaku they'd managed to successfully pinpoint its location in Hueco Mundo, and went to the spot in Osaka that corresponded with that location. "Stop it right there!" The chants were silenced as the robed figures were startled out of their concentration, a male shinigami wearing their traditional garbs had come to interrupt whatever foulness the sorcerers were plotting, his drawn and raised in preparation for combat. "I may not know what you're up to, but you don't have to be the President of the Comittee of Research and Development to figure out that you're up to no good!" He charged forwards towards the unmasked individual who spat and cursed at him. "You fool! If you distract us we won't be able to bind i--" But the adepts words fell on deaf ears, and he was forced to cut himself short in order to defend himself with a hastily woven which parried the blow easily enough. With a subtle sign, he commandedthe energy shield to surge forwards as a makeshift projectile, sending the other man skittering across the ground, forced backwards by the sheer momentum. The adept nodded to the neophytes who resumed their chanting, they couldn't afford to miss a moment once the Gillian came through. With a mighty show of exertion, the Shinigami broke free of the thrown energy shield and was just about to prepare for a counterattack when he saw that his adversary had lowered his hand towards him, the next word spoken was the last one he ever heard. "Hadō #31, !" A ball of red flame impacted the man square in the chest and sent him flying into a nearby tree which exploded into a pillar of eldritch flames, his asauchi being flung from his grasp and piercing a grassy mound some yards away. The adept smirked, turned around and was met with a bright flash of the purest scarlet, then he too was gone, annihilated by a Cero from the very monster they wished to summon. Long bony white fingers widened the gap in space as a horrific creature some three stories tall stepped out into the middle of the park, it was draped in a black covering that obscured most of it features. But the most distinctive feature of the gargantuan monstrosity was its white mask, with its distinctive elongated nose.. at a distance it resembled a caricature of an oversized witch-like being, as they were often described or depicted in childrens litterature. It let out a chilling moan that caused the earth around it to rumble from the sound alone, as it left the garganta behind and exited fully into the world of the living. Its bead-like eyes scanning the horizon for anything that might constitute a proper meal. It had been a high speed chase all throughout Karakura. Making off in the beat-up Toyota Camry he had found in the parking lot of a McDonalds, DeAndre sighed a breath of relief as he pressed through the borders of Ikeda and lost the police cars that had been tailing him to legal jurisdictions. He was free at last. Or free for the moment, at least. Looking down at himself, DeAndre was still in the orange garbs the prison had forced him into. One look at it and he was forced to suppress a strong urge to vomit. As a Fullbringer, DeAndre's life was orchestrated around forming bonds with the various objects he saw on a day to day basis. Of course his Fullbring of choice was his fidget spinner, which he held in his left hand even now, but in the many months he had spent inside of a cellar by himself, DeAndre had come to form a different kind of relationship with his prison uniform entirely. He loathed it; hated and despised every bit of it. He had never once been allowed to change out of it. DeAndre had spent several months in the same attire --his blood, sweat, and tears were all infused within the uniform by now. Wearing it was a constant reminder of the various forms of torture he had been introduced to inside of that prison; he'd rather walk around naked than to take another step in that goddamn orange uniform. Much to his fortune, a set of clothes arrived for him in the form of resounding explosion. He had been parked along a long road beside a small forest preserve, and as if on cue of his arrival, DeAndre saw a tree be set aflame. Now normally DeAndre would have bolted in the opposite direction anytime he found himself in the middle of a forest fire. Except the piece of junk car that he had hijacked failed to start back up, leaving him stranded; and even then, were it not for the man dressed in black whom had been blasted through a tree and fallen over the hood of his car, DeAndre would have surely run off by now. But something had urged him to stay. DeAndre slid out from the car and took one stride forward toward the Shinigami. He was confused, to say the least, by his sudden presence and even more so by his sense of fashion. The soul reaper was hardly alive; he was breathing profusely, his chest singed with fumes of smoke whiffling from it into the dark sky above. "Ay yo, what the fuck, man? Fuck's you doin' out here in the middle of nowhere like that?" With whatever small ounce of strength he had left, the Shinigami blinked. A puzzled expression overtook his face immediately. "Y-You can see me?" He coughed, and blood puffed out of his mouth like jelly from one of Officer Jenkins' donuts. "Yeah nigga, of course I can see you. Why is you so surprised, bruh?" The Shinigami merely shook his head. There was no time for this, not when the enemy was the Coven! "L-Listen, I w-won't be alive for much longer. If you can see me, then that means you must have some sort of spiritual energy, however small it may be." He rose up his trembling hand, offering him his sheathed katana. "Y-You need to take this. This is your best shot at stopping them; take this from me and s-stop them… stop the Coven!" DeAndre had never been so confused in his entire life. What he saw in this man was a desperate soul who clearly had something else he cared so much about. So much so that he prioritized his mission even above his own death. And so DeAndre complied, being able to honor that in the same way his older brother, Melo, would have. "Aight man, I'll do whatever the fuck it is you want me to. You need to me to cut some dudes up and I need some new clothes to wear." He looked he Shinigami up and down. "Consider us even." Of course, DeAndre still had no idea what was going on. Dressed in the part of a soul reaper, his look made complete by the asauchi sheathed at his waist, DeAndre wandered through the forest and into the park. Of course, his clothes were only visible to those whom were spiritually aware; unbeknownst to him, even, he would appear buttnaked to any ordinary human. The Gillian bellowed at the sight of what it assumed was another Shinigami. Taking one look up at it and around at the neophytes that were fleeing for their lives, DeAndre's eyes widened significantly. "Holy fuck..!" DeAndre had fought his fair share of Hollows. He wasn't that much of a novice; he was aware of his own powers and had been the victim of many Hollow attacks over the years. But never had he seen one as large and menacing as this Gillian. He froze dead in his tracks, the fidget spinner in his left hand spinning to a stop. He surveyed the neophytes, with only one thing coming to mind --the same thing that had been trapped inside ever since he had stepped foot into this park. "Holy… fuck!!" The Gillian remained in place, its expression entirely unreadable. With a sound it slowly opened its mouth wide, as a single mote of red light appeared in front of its face, more motes of red light gathered where the first one appeared until it had quickly formed a large sphere of enormously dense crimson reiatsu. It was as though nature dreaded the coming attack, for the winds picked up speed around them and the treetops bent in towards the Gillian, as its powerful spiritual presence began to affect its immediate environment. While its attack was charging it turned its mighty head slowly sideways to face the escaping neophytes, before it unleashed the pent-up energy in the form of a single thick beam of hyper-condensed reiryoku. The neophytes turned around and erected barriers to shield themselves, but it didn't even impede the the slightest, as it grinded their bodies to nothingness through its overwhelming kinetic force. Once more the creature let out a fearsome bellow, the kind that would surely haunt the nightmares of every child in Ikeda if they were unfortunate enough to hear it. It then slowly turned back to face DeAndre and the downed Shinigami, and once more the telltale signs of red energy appeared in front of its hideous features, as it quickly began to coalesce into another Cero, this one would be aimed directly at the two men.. In the moment the Gillian sucked up air, torrents of wind whipped up all around DeAndre and he found himself losing ground quickly. His feet dragged forward against the dirt, soiling the fresh pair of Yeezys he had robbed on his way here. Thrusting his newly acquired Asauchi ahead of him, he stabbed the blade into the ground to keep himself steady. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the Shinigami from earlier fly forward toward the Hollow against his own will, and so DeAndre had no choice but to devote his other hand into reaching out and grabbing him by his shirt to restrain him. "J-Just what in the fuck is that thing?!" DeAndre shouted aloud, staring into the eyes of the Shinigami. "I've never seen a Hollow that big before!" DeAndre's eyes widened at the sight of the Cero firstly being fired, then demolishing the neophytes in one fell swoop. His grasp over the Shinigami weakened, and he allowed him to just fall flat unto his face on the ground. Those neophytes had possessed enough ability to at the very least erect some form of barrier; and even that wasn't enough. DeAndre couldn't do that! As the Gillian disposed of the rest and turned its attention to DeAndre, charging up another one of its profound attacks, the Fullbringer was left with very few options. He had relocated his mother to Ikeda prior to his imprisonment; she was somewhere up ahead in the town. If he failed to stop this Gillian here and now, then it could potentially place her life in jeopardy. He couldn't allow that to happen! His only choice was to fight, here and now. And so he spun his fidget spinner round and round, causing his frame to be illuminated by a shrub of spiritual energy. Through a soft kick of his soiled Yeezys, DeAndre absorbed the properties of a rock into the rest of his body; his figure became hard and compact, as durable as a large boulder. DeAndre knew this likely wouldn't be enough to escape injury against the Hollow's incredible attack. But that wasn't exactly what he was going for, either. Sheathing his blade and crossing his arms ahead of him, he braced for impact, flaring his spiritual energy all around him. The Cero slammed against him, sending him flying back and through numerous trees, uprooting them instantly. As the blast dissipated, slowly, DeAndre was laying on his back several meters away from his initial position. His rock body was chiseled, with scratches and blemishes all across indicating severe damage. He couldn't move; the most he could manage was to lift up his neck and look forward at the path in the forest the Cero had made. Smoke fumed from his stone-infested body. He let out a hard grunt, dropping his head back to the ground. ---- Fear and uncertainty ruled the streets at this hour, for although only a select few could see the monstrosity in the park, the sheer levels of devastation unleashed by its attacks seemed like some sort of terrorist attack, but it seemed a strange act to the population, to attack the park rather than the residents of the city. Yet the police had been dispatched, and would arrive within the hour. Some distance away from the scene though a shimmering green light sped across the sky like a stray comet, dazzling any onlookers down on the ground with its brilliance. Had they the clarity of sight to look closer upon this curious phenomenon they would witness an even more unusual sight, namely that of a strangely-dressed man with his hair styled in a large pompadour and with manly tears falling from his eyes like twinkling star dust, a man who was, quite literally running on the air. Otoya's feet struck the air in a perfect rhytm, which was followed by a succession of green lights that propelled him forwards at far greater speeds than he might've achieved through mortal means. Several lives had been extinquished at once by that creature in the distance, which obscured the moon and made the Kurogane heir's stomach churn. '' It looked so terrifying.'' He hadn't been present, it was almost too much to bear for the young man, the emotions were too great, he couldn't contain them. At last his quivering bottom lip slipped and he started bawling with great intensity. Yet even through overflowing eyes, Otoya was firm, he HAD to save that one flickering light in the park, the only survivor of the Gillians brutal attack and so he closed the remainder of the distance in a shimmering flurry of spontaneous bursts before he slammed into the monsters white mask with both legs, twice enhanced through the power of , culminating in a small explosion of green energy. With a barely suppressed sob he shouted at the moment of impact, "Arrow of JUSTICE!". Kicking off of the mask once more, Otoya pulled on the air to help ease his descent down to the ground, and comply it did, as the young man seemed to swim gently through the air down towards the possibly unconscious DeAndre. His feet kissed the ground gently, as the green nimbus that had sprung into being around him dimmed down to nothing. Wiping away his tears of manly concern for the other man, Otoya was just about to lean down to offer him a hand when he heard a fearsome roar behind him, a roar that brought to mind all of his worst nightmares and threatened to burst his eardrums by its sheer force. He fell on his knees and crawled around to look at the Gillian.. he'd been sure that it'd at least suffered major damage, but no, its mask was entirely intact and the fruit of Otoya's hard labor was a single crack. He sat there dumbfounded, that attack had never failed at dispatching of a Hollow, what even was this thing? He'd assumed that it was just another large Hollow, but now he was not so sure. In one swift motion and a shimmer of lime-green light, Otoya withdrew an impractically sized calculator from his pocket and levelled it at the Gillian, who was mercifully stationary at the current time. Numbers danced across the screen, dialling higher.. and higher.. and higher until at last they reached a terrifying conclusion which filled Otoya with sudden dread. For the number read: 5000. "R-Rocks," DeAndre puffed out with a hard breath, "b-bring me some rocks." The stone infused body of DeAndre, while hardly intact, was nevertheless functioning. DeAndre was alive, and more than that, he was conscious. Although it hurt him to do so, DeAndre forced his head toward the direction of the Fullbringer at his side, who was on his knees, holding some sort of calculator between his hands. He had no clue who or what he was, but seeing as how he had yet to attack him in any way, shape, or form, DeAndre had no choice but to assume he was an ally. "Bring me some rocks," DeAndre repeated aloud. "And f-feed them to me. P-Please..." Kurogane wiped his eyes, as he let out a barely stifled whimper of relief. He'd arrived in time, it looked like he might at least be able to save one person, already he could tell that DeAndre was like him, and so he naturally didn't waste a single moment digging into the ground for pieces of gravel and small rocks, which he hurriedly showed into the other man's mouth while talking frantically to him. "Who are you? Do you need to eat rocks to use the power of your Fullbring, that's so strange. I'm Otoya!" He continued to chat away about all kinds of frivolous topics, all while tears of joy streamed down his face, to keep himself distracted from the feeling of dread that'd descended over him. Ultimately though, he managed to steel his resolve by asking himself a simple question, was he a man or a mouse? Otoya gave himself a smack across the face. Focus, focus! He thought, before he activated his Fullbring, Nasty Accountant. With a blinding green light his calculator turned into several hovering green screens, that zeroed onto the Gillian, even as he assinged the role of Collector to the incapacitated DeAndre, and assumed the mantle of Accountant himself. "Listen. Whatever you do, focus on evasion over everything else.. if we can keep evading its death beams, we can win this. It is fruitless to attack it as we are right now anyhow.. I've never fought any Hollow like that, I'm not even sure its the same species of Hollow we are used to. Pull on the "soul" of as the ground beneath you while running, assuming you can stand, that will accelerate yo-" Otoya's eyes widened then as he felt the sudden vacuum of the Gillian preparing its Cero once more, a glowing red sphere grew in front of its mouth, aimed at the two young men, and as it charged up its signature attack, the numbers on one of the screens produced by his Fullbring calculated its power through the Price Level unit as 1200. Kurogane's eyes narrowed in surprise, such a blow would've most likely killed him upon a direct impact, yet DeAndre was not only alive, but concious; what was this man's body even made of? DeAndre gulped down the rocks, and as they were ingested into his body, a truly miraculous phenomenon took place. For a single moment, his body became illuminated within a thin green aura, closing everyone of the scratches and nicks and bruises and gashes that had been previously smug to his physique like another one of his tattoos. He sat up as Otoya introduced himself, wiping his mouth and sighing in relief as if he had just helped himself to some sort of buffet. "H-Hey, easy there, bruh," DeAndre muttered at once, trying to fend off Otoya's frivolous banter with an outstretched hand. "Otoya, huh? I'm DeAndre. Thanks for savin' my bacon just now. And... no. No I don't eat rocks to power my Fullbring." DeAndre's reverted back from stone to normal. With the large supply of rocks Otoya had been able to offer him, DeAndre had healed completely --there wasn't so much as a single scratch on him now. "It's a bit more complicated than that. You see, through my Fullbring, I can harness the properties of whatever I come into contact with. Consuming that same material allows me to heal my injuries." He grew silent, recalling the many times he had been shot either in a scuffle with another gang or by the cops. "What about you? How does your Fullbring work?" But DeAndre didn't need a clear cut answer. For Otoya was in the midst of a visual demonstration. A calculator in the man's hands lit up, and in the next transpiring moments, several screens paraded the Hollow. In that same time frame, DeAndre suddenly felt better than he ever remembered, and it certainly wasn't the doing of eating all of those rocks. He took a hard look at his hand. He felt empowered; he somehow felt... stronger. "Woah... is this 'cause of you? What did you do to me?" So many questions, so many statements. And yet so little time to make do on any of them. DeAndre reverted his attention to the Hollow after hearing Otoya gulp. Another long beam was coming. And while turning into stone again was always one option, DeAndre had something else in mind this time around. One last glance toward Otoya, and DeAndre pulled the soul of the ground and amassed greater speeds in harnessing the Bringer Light technique. He had done this before, of course, only never as fast. Without awaiting the Accountant's consent, DeAndre flung Otoya over his shoulder and zoomed away toward safety as the Gillian's Cero ripped apart their previous position. "Hey, look. I know I may not look like much, especially not after you just saw me get my ass whooped... but I need you to cover me the best you can." DeAndre set Otoya down, looking over at the long, gaping crater the Hollow had made with its incredible attack. "...I need to get close to that thing. Close enough to touch it. And I promise, as soon as that happens, this whole mess will turn around into our favor." Just what could have DeAndre been planning? Perhaps there was more to his power than he had let on. He eyed the Hollow with a glare, his fist tightening at his side. He had no idea what any of the screens and numbers floating around the Gillian meant, but that didn't concern him right now. DeAndre had only a single goal in mind: he needed to touch that Hollow and he needed to touch it real good. "Sit tight and increase my speed again if you can. I'll be back before you know it." Green ripples of energy cascaded under his Yeezys, and without waiting for Otoya's instruction, DeAndre took off again, racing towards the Gillian. Otoya made a grimace as the other man ran off towards the Gillian. It'd appear as though DeAndre had misunderstood something about his powers, no wonder given the circumstances, and Kurogane's lack of a proper explanation. But it would have to wait, there was no time, he'd simply cover him as suggested so that they could get through this somehow. But one issue needed to be cleared up quickly. "Listen. My Fullbring has merely marked you as a Collector, it hasn't increased your abilities in any way, that is not how it works!" With the monster already halfway in the process of charging up its Cero, Otoya cast his doubts aside and got up on his feet. He knew he most likely could not interrupt so powerful a blast, but he could certainly cause it to fire off-center, which he hoped would make it easier for DeAndre to avoid it. Kurogane dashed after DeAndre towards the Gillian, but on the third step he utilized his expertise within Fullbring to pull twice on the asphalt to accelerate himself, utilizing his advanced talent of Double-Pull. The result was immediate, as Otoya shimmered out out being in a green flash and reappeared mid-motion just in front of the Gillian, having traversed the distance between them in a scant few miliseconds. Twisting around in mid-air, Kurogane applied the full momentum of his fullbring-enhanced movement to his foot, even as he pulled twice on too, and delivered a mighty roundhouse kick right into the Gillian's mask. Sending sparks of the visual phenomenon known as bringer light everywhere, in an attack that would surely have killed any ordinary Hollow. But as the designated Accountant under the effects of his Fullbring, all this achieved was that the Gillian's massive head, and subsequent aim with its charging Cero was pushed to the side, and off-center by the impact. All of the actual damage that Otoya did by the attack was negated, and instead floating green numbers appeared above the young man, representing the debt that the Gillian now owed him, these numbers being representative of Otoya's earlier attack: 600. It was in that moment the Gillian unleashed its Cero for the third time, the massive red blast of condensed and compressed reiryoku erased trees and important historical landmarks from existence as it tore a path of devastation throughout the park. But Otoya's interference wasn't for naught, for the speeding DeAndre would find that the blast, originally aimed at him, had been significantly thrown off its aim, to the point that evading the otherwise exceptionally wide beam it produced had been made all the easier if he simply moved towards the right. Most likely giving him an easy opening, given the time it took for the Gillian to charge up its Ceros. DeAndre had not only misunderstood Otoya's powers, but furthermore, underestimated the scope of his own. He had confused his enhancements with Otoya's involvement; though it wasn't until he was face to face with the Gillian that he overheard what Otoya was saying about how he had only made him a "collector" and nothing else. "Wait, what?" Pondering upon the happenings of Otoya's Fullbring aloud, DeAndre was met by a headbutt of obscene magnitude. He felt the wind be knocked out of him as the Hollow's mask plowed up against his body, sending him racing back toward the ground like a rocket. As DeAndre found himself laying in a miserable heap on the ground once more, he lifted his head up but slightly to take in the sight of the Hollow charing up another one of its red beams, and of course Otoya having more success at dealing with it than he had thus far. Thanks to Otoya's timely kick, the Hollow's cero discharged off its intended trajectory, sparing DeAndre's life as he took his sweet time getting up from the impact of the headbutt. Groaning as he rose up to his feet, DeAndre's hand slip upside the back of his head. He felt dazed, to say the least. And though him being headbutted wasn't at all how he had intended for the battle to unfold, it did in fact work in his favor. For he had managed to accomplish his goal after all: he had touched the Hollow. Or well, it had touched him, but the result was the same. So long as contact was made, DeAndre could reap the benefits nevertheless. "Alright, Otoya! Shit's about to go down!" DeAndre proudly declared, puffing out his chest. Curling his hand into a tempered fist and heaving it high over the top of his head, DeAndre sent a punch reeling towards the ground, resulting in a small crater. His arm glew with an emerald aura and in time it quickly covered the rest of his being. In a very bizarre turn of events, DeAndre had begun to grow in size… and fast. His size increased until he was as large as the Hollow itself, and no larger. "'Ey, you!" shouted the gigantic DeAndre, pointing his finger toward the Hollow as it charged up its third cero, "why don't ya try pickin' on someone your own size, huh?!" The "Wheel of Fortune", or so it was called. Perhaps the most versatile Fullbring in current existence. When a wheel spun, there was no telling what its arrow could land upon. In a similar sense, there was just no telling what DeAndre himself could harness into his own body. Otoya had vaguely witnessed DeAndre mimic the properties of stone earlier. But now, DeAndre had taken his power one step further. Rather than mimic the Gillian's spiritual matter, he had instead decided to assimilate the height and size of the Hollow. And now he was as large as the Gillian itself: he was DeAndre Grande! But DeAndre's showmanship didn't end there. He reached over and picked up boulders that were incredibly large and heavy to any ordinary sized human into the cusps of his hand and began to take in the properties of stone once more. However due to the sheer size of his body and the small proportion of the boulder in relation to it, it was going to take some time for the rest of his body to become encased in stone. But as the third cero came firing toward him, one stone arm was all he really needed. Otoya had done well in misdirecting the cero. However, DeAndre had grown so large that at this point, he was still within range of the blast. But rather than even attempt to evade it, this time around DeAndre heaved his stone infused fist toward the beam, smashing his knuckles into its body. While being covered in stone in his ordinary size earlier, DeAndre had managed to survive the full force of the Gillian's cero. With his current size and refined stone enhancement, he uncovered little difficulty in deflecting the blast into the skies above. Fireworks resounded as the blast erupted harmlessly into the air. "Fuck yeah!!" DeAndre cheered, flexing both arms in celebration as the stone continued to creep along the rest of his massive figure. "That's what I'm talkin' about, baby! Otoya, clear outta my way! I'm abouta teach this son of a bitch a lesson he won't never forget!!" One stomp at a time, DeAndre shook the entire forest as his enormous, yet sluggish body stormed towards the Gillian. He was far too caught up in the moment to realize just how taxing this size transformation was on his spiritual reserves, especially with the application of Bringer Light to speed up his movements all the more. Reeling toward the Gillian's side, DeAndre launched blow after blow with his fists unto the Hollow, his fighting style reminiscent of his time spent on the streets, showing little in the way of honor. The only way this guy knew how to fight was dirty. There had been a single monster in Ikeda. But now, there was two. Otoya's efforts had worked out well, his actions had succeeded in sending the Cero off its intended trajectory, although not to the point where it ended up missing the man completely. Which was a shame, considering that Nasty Accountant calculated the PL of an enemies attacks, and whenever that attack failed to connect with its intended target, DeAndre in this scenario, the total Price Level would be added as debt. Until that debt was repaid, the Gillian could not inflict any damage whatsoever upon such a target. Whenever he fought a foe he felt could not be defeated through ordinary means, his first instinct was always to use his Fullbring, for its powers extended even further than merely serving as a makeshift defense, for if at any point a targets collective debt towards the Accountant and Collectors exceeded their actual Price Level, they would go bankrupt and be weakened immensely as a result. However, upon witnessing the rather dramatic emergence of DeAndre Grande. Otoya wondered if perhaps they'd be able to win without the assistance of his Fullbring, at any rate, upon seeing it in all its glory, Otoya's eyes stained with tears of joy at the sight as he remarked. "S-so coool!" One might safely assume however that the Gillian's reaction was far less enthusiastic as the monstrosity was punched about every which way, pummeled by a monster that could very well be its like in terms of physical strength, but hardly in terms of sheer unsightlyness. Yet the creature proved exceptionally resilent indeed, and while DeAndre's blows certainly matched and even significantly exceeded the strength of Otoya's first Fullbring-enhanced attack, damaging the creature proved a far more trying an ordeal than it seemed. Almost as if the creatures potent reiatsu acted as a natural defense, a primitive variation of an Arrancar's possibly. Yet the blows fell so hard and fast that when the onslaught finally receded, the Gillian's nose was clearly broken and its mask had various large cracks covering more than half of its surface area. It might not have been the decisive finisher that the two men had hoped for, but it had certainly gotten them more than halfway to a clear victory. Despite its bestial inteliligence, the Gillian appeared to understand this too and let out a horrifying scream that threatened to momentarily stun and disorient DeAndre for the sheer intensity of it at this close a range, due to his naturally enlarged ears and one would presume, hearing. Like all of its previous screams, it was like an unearthly howl from the underworld itself, one that filled most with a preternatural terror. Following this attack, the Gillian immediately resumed its most favored tactic, or rather its only tactic and began charging up another Cero. One that began to manifest swiftly in front of its broken nose, shimmering with a coruscating red outline and causing the surrounding treetops to sway due to the building intensity. Otoya's reaction was swift, whether or not the Gillian's scream had affected DeAndre, he would not sit idly by and allow it to charge and aim its Cero's properly. Before one hardly even had the time to blink, Otoya had pulled on the soul of the soil beneath him, and vanished up the Gillian's body in a lime green glimmer of light Just as it had before, Kurogane's Fullbring-enhanced kick caused the Gillian's head to careen to the side somewhat, adjusting its aim from Thorton's head and chest to his right arm and hand. Gritting his teeth, Otoya wished he could've done more, all he could do now was trust in his allies ability to protect himself. When he'd struck the blow, the spectral green numbers above his head had changed once more. Dialling up from 600 to 1200. If the worst came to worst, Otoya could negate the Gillian's next Cero by using himself as a human shield: for his Fullbring would take the damage meant for him.